


A Conservation of Matter

by Amshara



Category: Guardians of Childhood & Related Fandoms, Guardians of Childhood - William Joyce, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: F/M, Friendship/Love, Gen, change is hard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2016-06-28
Packaged: 2018-07-18 22:07:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7332475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amshara/pseuds/Amshara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After thousands of years, and for the first time since she was a child, the Tooth Fairy has been transformed. She's human again (mostly). </p>
<p>Tooth finds out the hard way that to go forward, sometimes you have to go back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Conservation of Matter

**PROLOGUE**

* * *

 

Toothiana is the Guardian of Memories and she’s been alive for a long time. When asked about her age, usually by a tipsy Leprechaun at one of North’s infamous Christmas parties, she answers that she’s “older than the mountains and younger than the wind”.

Tooth is old, so almost everyone is blind to the ways that she is also painfully young. They forget that she was called to be a Guardian when she was barely out of childhood herself. North is guilty of making this mistake himself; but with his arms wrapped gently around a quietly sobbing Tooth Fairy, he is reminded that his kind-hearted friend still has a few lessons to learn.

He holds her gingerly, careful to avoid her still tender wings. Her grip is stronger than he remembers, and he doesn’t need to look down as far when he dabs at her tears with his handkerchief. Tooth’s hair is tousled from her frantic rush into his workshop and falls in waves around her face. Brilliant strands of gold, purple, and green intermingle with deep brown curls and catch the light from the windows as she shakes her head and sniffles. Looking at her clinically, as if he were assessing a new ice carving, North notes his friend’s appearance. Dusky skin, traced with gold in the faintest outline of feathers; high cheekbones, with a straight nose and full lips; almond eyes with startlingly purple irises, framed by delicately arched brows and long lashes.

By any standard, Tooth is a lovely. Despite her wings, which are more like a hummingbird’s and less like the dragonfly wings he’s accustomed to, she is also jarringly human.

This, of course, is precisely the problem. For all the time that he’d known her, Tooth has been distinguished by her brilliant plumage. North has never seen her in human clothes like the ones she is wearing now; it had taken him several long moments to recognize who exactly had barreled into his workshop when she had first entered.

After thousands of years, and for the first time since she was a child, the Tooth Fairy has been transformed.

And from what he can make out, she doesn’t know _why_. But when she makes him promise ( _promise_ ) not to tell anyone where she is—especially not the other Guardians—he has the sneaking suspicion that there is more to this story than just Tooth’s unexpected metamorphosis.

“What about Jack?” he prods her. Of them all, she is the closest to their newest Guardian. For his part, Jack has been protective of Tooth and the mini-fairies since the incident with Pitch. With Baby Tooth as Jack’s almost-constant companion and Jack’s “dropping in” to check on the “tooth collecting business”, as he calls it, North knows that the two Guardians have become good friends. If Tooth is gone from the Tooth Palace for too long, Jack will be the first to go looking for her. At Tooth’s panicked look and frantic shake of the head, he realizes that this may be a more personal, and far more difficult, situation than he first imagined.

North pictures Jack’s reaction when he realizes that his friend is missing and barely stops himself from groaning aloud. _This will be not fun at all._ Mentally he makes a note to double the Yeti guard around the Pole until Tooth figures out her next step. Somehow he doesn’t think it will make much difference.

He swears he hears the Man in the Moon laughing at him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm still new to writing fiction so I appreciate any and all feedback.


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